April 22, 2012 - The Museum of Flight in Seattle
unveiled the first sections of the NASA Space Shuttle
Trainer, three Engine Bells marking the first of several
shipments of the trainer, which will be housed at the
Museum’s Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

Museum of Flight President and CEO Doug King hosted a
brief news conference to announce the arrival and to
unpack one of the three Engine Bells, which are
approximately nine feet in diameter and roughly 800
pounds each.

The Shuttle Trainer is being delivered in several stages
in the coming months, with the most recognizable
portion, the Crew Compartment tentatively scheduled for
delivery on June 16 aboard NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft.

“Today’s arrival of the three Shuttle Trainer Engine
Bells marks a very significant moment for The Museum of
Flight and the beginning of an exciting process that
will allow us to tell the complete story of the Shuttle
and the launch of the next era of space flight,” said
Museum of Flight President and CEO Doug King. “Our
Charles Simonyi Space Gallery will be one of the premier
aerospace exhibits in the world.”

Built in
the 1970s, the Shuttle Trainer is the only one of its kind in
the world and is the simulator in which every space shuttle
astronaut trained for space flight. It will be on display in the
15,500-sq.-ft. Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, where it will be
joined by a collection of other rare space artifacts including
Simonyi’s Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft and interactive exhibits
showcasing space travel from the earliest days of the space
shuttle program to the future of commercial space.

The Space
Shuttle was a partially reusable launch system and orbital
spacecraft operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) for human spaceflight missions. The system
combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry
spaceplane with modular add-ons. The first of four orbital test
flights occurred in 1981 leading to operational flights
beginning in 1982. It was used on a total of 135 missions from
1981 to 2011 all launched from the Kennedy Space Center,
Florida.

Major
missions included launching numerous satellites, interplanetary
probes, Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducting space science
experiments, and constructing and servicing the International
Space Station. Major components included the orbiters,
recoverable boosters, external tanks, payloads, and supporting
infrastructure. Five space-worthy orbiters were built; two were
destroyed in accidents.

The Space Shuttle
at launch consisted of the Orbiter Vehicle (OV), one external tank (ET),
and two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). It was launched vertically like a
conventional rocket with thrust from the two SRBs and three main
engines. During launch, the external tank provided fuel for the
orbiter's main engines.

The SRBs and ET were jettisoned before the orbiter
reached orbit. At the conclusion of the orbiter's space
mission, it fired its thrusters to drop out of orbit and
re-enter the lower atmosphere. The orbiter decelerated
in the atmosphere before flying like a glider but with
reaction control system thrusters before landing on a
long runway.